Friday 30 August 2013

Bank Holiday

We spent a very busy bank holiday weekend in a variety of different ways; Saturday at a Friend’s wedding (congratulations to Dale and Hayley, not forgetting Layla), Sunday soaking the sun at the Colchester cricket festival watching Essex thrash Derbyshire by 102 runs in a YB40 match. We also managed to get home to see the climax of the fifth test.  A bizarre end but probably a fair one and a 3-0 Ashes win! Monday dawned with clear bright skies so there was nothing to thwart our plan of doing a little fishing.



We rolled out of bed when we woke up, no alarm clocks, had tea and toast then set off. Shelley and I picked up my nephew Ollie whom I’ve been promising a fishing trip for some time. We headed deep into the Suffolk countryside to a group of pits that should meet our requirements. I hadn’t visited these lakes for a couple of months so was shocked to find them absolutely choked with duck weed, you could hardly see any water. My first choice area looked unfishable so we had a look at the piranha pool and found enough clear water here to enable us to fish a couple of rods. A couple of handfuls of floating pellets soon had our swim full of hungry Carp, I rigged up two rods to fish floaters while Shelley wandered around with her camera. It didn’t take very long before Ollie was into a fish and the first of many small Common Carp was dragged over the net. After catching one myself I handed my rod over to Shelley then played ghillie for a while, netting, unhooking and baiting up.


After a couple of hours here we moved over to one of the other pits and found an algae free corner where we could soak a couple of boilies, fished over a scattering of pellets. Carp moved in and out of our swim regularly but none seemed to drop down onto our baited spots. I tried feeding floaters again and one or two fish did show an interest but none where feeding confidently. We sat back in our chairs chilling and chatting which for me was much more relaxing and enjoyable than the bedlam of the piranha pool, despite not catching anything. We packed up at lunch time, dropping Ollie at his home before returning to ours for a siesta. 

After demolishing a large pepperoni pizza and a pot of tea we chilled out through the heat of the day. Having topped up the flasks and stashed some more food we ventured out once more, this time our destination was the club pit. I parked the car and we took a slow amble around the pit, it was no surprise to find a few anglers about on this bank holiday Monday but there was still plenty of space for us to go at. The walk around the water provided few fishy clues but I did bump into a friend, Mr P who was just setting up at the far end and we vowed to keep one another up to speed on the fishing via text. By the time we made it back to the car I still hadn’t seen any fish but the moderate North Easterly was pushing into the bay I’d fished last time out, this area was quiet so I was happy to settle in here for the evening, getting the rods out at around 1700.



My right hand rod was the PVA bag mix fished on an inline rig with fake corn as hookbait. The other was the now normal helicopter/snowman rig baited with a boilie and cast into a clear area amongst the far bank trees. This was baited by catapult with about twenty freebies. I was in the process of helping Shelley assemble another helicopter rig when my boilie rod sounded a few beeps. I looked round to see the line pulling tight and having learnt from previous mistakes I swept the rod back and immediately started to drag the fish away from the snags. This I managed easily and I soon had a reasonable weight of fish plodding around in front of me, then all went solid. I kept the pressure on and whatever was on the end came free, at this point I was thinking I’d hooked one of the rare but large Tench that reside in this pit. However I was very surprised to see a large Common Carp materialise in the clear water, before it knew what was happening I had it in the net!

With the fish resting in the net I got all the necessary bits and pieces ready then lifted it onto the mat. The hook was wedged perfectly in the bottom lip but came out easily. I held this cracking fish up for Shelley’s camera before slipping it onto the scales which revealed a surprising weight, my second proper Carp in a couple of weeks! I released it into the clear water and watched it sink away into the weeds, lovely!



A good fish after only five minutes, result! This surely would be the first of many? With things back to normal we got Shelley’s rod out and topped up the spots with more boilies. I text Mr P to let him know and he text back a little while later saying he was into fish too. It was a very pleasant evening chilling out in the fading sun, sipping tea and frying sausages. There were fish in the bay too, I watched two small Carp cruise in virtually under my rod tips; surely we just had to catch more fish? However after another couple of hours had passed only the wildfowl had managed to disturb my baits, annoying Swans and noisy ducks meant I had to recast both rods. Tricky casts amongst the trees combined with my dodgy eyesight meant this was easier said than done!

Around 1930 Shelley’s rod signalled a take but unfortunately her strike met no resistance, somehow the culprit had managed to drop the rig. She got the bait back into position and we sat back to watch the sun sink with renewed confidence, with light fading it just had to happen, didn’t it? Apart from the odd liner we had no more action by packing up time at 2100. That brought a lovely busy, bank holiday weekend to a close. I don’t know when I’ll get out fishing again, hopefully soon.

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